Adianto P Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Green activists hope the local business community, which contributes to pollution, becomes involved in fighting climate change.
The ultimate objective is to keep global warming below the dangerous threshold of two degrees Celsius.
Director of WWF-Indonesia's climate change program, Fitrian Ardiansyah said the business community could play an important role in reducing release of pollutants.
"It is also a call for local (Indonesian) businesses to become involved in cutting their own emissions," he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Fitrian commented on the signing Friday of the Tokyo Declaration on world climate by a dozen of companies in Japan.
The signatories are Allianz, Catalyst, Collins, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Nokia, Novo Nordisk, Sagawa, Sony, Spitsbergen Travel, Tetra-Pak and Xanterra.
Each year the companies are to reduce by at least 10 million tons their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main contributor to the greenhouse gas buildup.
"Local companies have a great opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including through energy saving, product design and the use of energy alternatives", said Fitrian, suggesting that such moves would improve business efficiency at the same time.
The Climate Savers program was introduced by WWF International to urge businesspeople to take action on climate change.
Under the program, companies commit to emissions reductions targets and agree to independent emissions verifications.
"Tokyo Declaration suggests the scope of the contribution business can make to successful action on climate change," James Leape, Director General of WWF International said in a statement.
"These companies are to be applauded, not just for the example they have set in reducing their own emissions, but also for their willingness to urge action on the part of governments, the broader business community and their customers and consumers", the statement said.
Fitrian said his office would launch the program in Indonesia this year.
"We will persuade local companies including Garuda Indonesia to help reduce their climate pollution."
Head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer said the climate problem needed economic solutions.
"The climate change needs an economic solution and the negotiations are an opportunity to find solutions that are economically viable worldwide," de Boer said in Tokyo as quoted by AFP.
Officials from 21 countries -- including the U.S., China and India, whose greenhouse gas emissions account for 70 percent of global emissions -- attended the two-day closed-door talks to help find common ground.
The talks come ahead of negotiations in Bangkok from March 31 to April 4 on reaching a deal on mutually binding climate protection obligations to follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
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